There is a guy that makes a boutiqu pedal called a Dice Works on ebay. I have one and he custom makes them for you in any finish for about $99 and you tell him which kind of transistor and such you like. They are exact copies the Fuzz Face but about the size of an MXR pedal. They sound the best with non-Alkaline batteries though, and do not have adapter power.

Otherwise, I would say to get something from Fulltone. Those guys make awesome stuff.

The Danelecro French Toast Octave Distortion is also a great pedal. It has the circuit from the vintage FOX pedals.

They have fuzz face, tone bender, and big muff kits that only take a few hours to solder together. They're on printed circuit boards and there are step-by-step directions making them quite easy to build. I've made the fuzz face and tonebender copies and I'm quite happy with each of them, I plan on ordering a Triboost in the near future, as well.

And regarding the Stooges and the MC5, they are fantastic. I wish more people in my age group liked them. I'm one of the only kids at my school who's even heard of them.

It was funny my mother heard me listening the MC5's Ramblin Rose and her response was 'this is terrible'. Next she was like this is too angry for me. I told her 'all this is is the blues turned up to volume 11'. I think something clicked in her at that moment and though she would never enjoy it she got an appreciation for what they were trying to do.

did you see the stooges in high school? i can only imagine. what about the mc5...for all of you who are interested, their album powertrip is in my opinion the best mc5 album. it's so raw, tight, and has an insane amount of energy. that band could make a hell of a noise.

also, i love that prunes commercial. i got that one on the dreams greatest hits comp.

Yeah, I did. The summer of '69 I went to the Saugatuck Pop Festival, or whatever it was called. Living on the west side of the state, it was harder to see the Detroit/Ann Arbor bands than those living in the SE part of the state. So it was an opportunity to see many of them in one place. I'd already seen MC5, with Nugent opening, at Ferris State College up in Big Rapids. But at Saugatuck, which was sort of a send-off blast for my brother who was going into the Navy, we got to see MC5, Stooges, Brownsville Station, SRC, etc. from Detroit area, and some Chicago acts, such as Rotary Connection (with the late Minnie Ripperton on lead vocals).

Iggy was sooooo messed up for the Stooges set. He had to be dragged off the stage by roadies at the end of the set, as he was throwing himself on the drum kit and otherwise creating a spectacle in the hot afternoon sun. Ah, the good ol' days.

Yeah, I did. The summer of '69 I went to the Saugatuck Pop Festival, or whatever it was called. Living on the west side of the state, it was harder to see the Detroit/Ann Arbor bands than those living in the SE part of the state. So it was an opportunity to see many of them in one place. I'd already seen MC5, with Nugent opening, at Ferris State College up in Big Rapids. But at Saugatuck, which was sort of a send-off blast for my brother who was going into the Navy, we got to see MC5, Stooges, Brownsville Station, SRC, etc. from Detroit area, and some Chicago acts, such as Rotary Connection (with the late Minnie Ripperton on lead vocals).

Iggy was sooooo messed up for the Stooges set. He had to be dragged off the stage by roadies at the end of the set, as he was throwing himself on the drum kit and otherwise creating a spectacle in the hot afternoon sun. Ah, the good ol' days.

We also went to the first Ann Arbor Blues Festival that summer.

holy f'n sh*t! that sounds like the best festival ever! wow!

when you saw ted was he in the amboy dukes?

this is sort of a rig question but i've been thinking about getting a 100 watt marshall plexi head to recapture that old british/detroit sound. is it worth it? i live in ny so i don't want to lug a cab. is there anything smaller that can get that sound?

Ted was billed that night as Ted Nugent and the Amboy Dukes, I think. I covered one of his concerts and interviewed him in the early 80s, when he was well past any connection to the AD identity, in fact was downright dismissive of the group.

As for the Marshall, I can't help you with that one. But I do know what you mean about that sound. MC5 cranked to the max was like you were in some Motor City machine shop where everyone was grinding metal while in a hurry to get out of work early.